Hiltix
The Integrated States of Hiltix is a massive, safe nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its hard-nosed, intelligent population of 2.295 billion have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often. It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Religion & Spirituality. The average income tax rate is 100%. A powerhouse of a private sector is dominated by the Uranium Mining industry. Anti-government web sites are springing up, the government is seen to favor Catholics, loans are available for students from poor families, and government-run screening operations remove embryos with severe genetic disorders. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hiltix's national animal is the yellow-winged darter, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the hilt. =Government= Government Type Inoffensive Centrist Democracy with Prime Minister and cabinet, Hiltix is a constitutional government and consists of a Tricameral legislature: House of Representatives (Lower house) – Elected assembly that debates issues and writes bills to send to the House of Senates and Judiciaries. House of Senates (Middle house) – The Senators receive bills from the House of Representatives and debate amongst them. House of Judiciaries (Upper house) - The Judiciaries pass or veto the bill depending on the majority of the Representatives and the Senators. Sessions of both the House of Representatives and Senates are televised, and open to public spectators, while the House of Judiciaries is held in a private court room in Hiltix's capital, Hilti. However the Prime Minister can declare a session closed if it discusses 'secret matters of national security' in which case that session will be closed to the public and TV cameras, and the secret sections of the minutes will be censored. This clause is rarely called into use. The Prime Minister of Hiltix serves as both the head of state and head of government for a 5 year term and may only serve 3 consecutive terms. The 2 dominant parties currently are the Hiltixan Conservative Party and the Hiltixan Greene Party, although many other smaller parties exist. Important Cities Hilti, Manachog, Riviara, Gorgonia. Administrative Divisions 9 provinces – Hilti, Grombel, Providence, Hadford, Everland, Illinascopi, Frisley, Volomula, and Litophia. Governmental Divisions * Office of the Prime Minister * State Department * Department of Defense * Department of Research * Department of Foreign Relations * Department of Transport * Department of Finance * Department of Information * Department of Education * Department of Medicine * Department of Energy =History= The Beginning Hiltix was founded by The Kingdom of Kindjal as a separate piece of land for mining special minerals. Grangerford Hiltix was put in as Manager in Chief of the well-known site. After two years of mining and finding barely enough to statisfy Kindjal, Grangerford traveled back to Kindjal to report that not enough minerals were found to boost the economy in Kindjal. After the report, Hiltix traveled back to the mining site to establish a colony of his own. Hiltix knew that the land was rich and fertile for great agricultural development. Hiltix named the establishment after himself and became the Prime Minister of the Colony of Hiltix. The Mineral War LiveLeak is a small nation just southwest of Hiltix. LiveLeak insisted that the mineral rights belonged to them because they discovered Hiltix in 1798. Hiltix immediately declined the statement, claiming that it has physical proof that Hiltix was discovered by Mining General Manager, Grangerford Hiltix, in 1862. After Hiltix's claim reached LiveLeak, a battle clashed in the city of Gorgonian, along the Jilliam River Valley. Hiltix's 400,000-men army outnumbered LiveLeak's 78,000-men army. After six months of fighting, LiveLeak withdrew, stating that the Republic's troop level was below the required amount to successfully win a war. LiveLeak still disputes the fact that Grangerford discovered Hiltix in 1862, but remains out of touch with Hiltix. In all, 119,000 men died on both sides, resulting in the economy declining and inflation to increase. Subsequently, Hiltix annexed the country after the war in 1870 after officials evacuated the nation and traveled to multiple countries. Hiltix gained the states of Voromula and Litophia. The Bank War Prime Minister Darwin did not hate all banks and all businesses, but he distrusted monopolistic banking and overbig businesses, as did his followers. A man of virulent dislikes, he came to share the prejudices of his own West against the "moneyed monster" known as the Bank of Hiltix. What made the bank a monster in Darwin's eyes? The national government minted gold and silver coins in the mid-nineteenth century but did not issue paper money. Paper notes were printed by private banks. Their value fluctuated with the health of the bank and the amount of money printed, giving private bankers considerable power over the nation's economy. No bank in Hiltix had more power than the Bank of Hiltix. In many ways the bank acted like a branch of government. It was the principal depository for the funds of the Hilti government and controlled much of the nation's gold and silver. Its notes, unlike those of many smaller stability, the bank was an important and useful part of the nation's expanding economy. But the bank of Hiltix was a private institution, accountable not to the people, but to its elite circle of moneyed investors. Its president, the brilliant but arrogant James Frocker, held and immense—and to many unconstitutional—amount of power over the nation's financial affairs. Enemies of the bank dubbed him "Czar Nicolas I" and called the bank a "hydra of corruption," a serpent that grew new heads whenever old ones were cut off. To some the bank's very existence seemed to sin against the egalitarian credo of Hiltixian democracy. The conviction formed the deepest source of Darwin's opposition. The bank also won no friends in the West by foreclosing on many western farms and draining "tribute" into eastern coffers. Profit, not public service, was its first priority. The Bank War erupted in 1885, when Sam Prospect and Clarence Damien presented The Reps with a bill to renew the Bank of Hiltix's charter. The charter was not set to expire until 1836, but Damien pushed for renewal four years early to make it an election issue in 1885. As Darwin's leading rival for the presidency, Damien, with fateful blindness, looked upon the bank issue as a surefire winner. Damien's scheme was to ram a recharter bill through The Reps and then send it on to the Prime Minister. If Darwin signed it, he would alienate his worshipful western followers. If he vetoed it, as seemed certain, he would presumably lose the presidency in the forthcoming election by alienating the wealthy and influential groups in the East. Damien seems not to have fully realized that the "best people" were now only a minority and that they generally feared Jackson anyhow. The recharter bill slid through The Reps on greased skids, as planned, but was killed by a scorching veto from Darwin. The "Old Hero" declared that monopolistic bank to be unconstitutional. Of course, the Judicials had earlier declared it constitutional in the case of Jeffersonv.Hadford (1879), but Darwin acted as though he regarded the executive branch as superior to the judicial branch. The old general growled privately, "The Bank...is trying to kill me, but I will kill it." Darwin's veto message reverberated with constitutional consequences. It not only squashed the bank bill but vastly amplified the power of the presidency. All previous vetoes had rested almost exclusively on questions of constitutionality. But though Darwin invoked the Constitution in his bank-veto message, he essentially argued that he was vetoing the bill because he personally found it harmful to the nation. In effect, he was claiming for the president alone a power equivalent to two-thirds of the votes in The Reps. If the legislative and executive branches were partners in government, he implied, the president was unmistakably the senior partner. The gods continued to misguide Clarence Damien. Delighted with the financial fallacies of Darwin's message but blind to its political appeal, he arranged to have thousands of copies printed as a campaign document. The president's sweeping accusations may indeed have seemed demagogic to the moneyed interests of the East, but they made perfect sense to the common people. The bank issue was now thrown into the noisy arena of the presidential contest of 1885. Currency Conflict In 1944, a conflict between the national currency and city currency erupted. Cities illegally established minting plants to produce their own currency aside from the national currency. This caused major confusion and chaos because citizens were confused on which type of currency to use. Prime Minister Gartenhaus was elected a rare fourth term to resolve the issue between these currencies. In 1946, the issue was resolved. The government voted 14-0 to keep the standard currency and that no other currency may be printed. Cities who illegally processed currency in 1944 were inevitably fined ╬500,000 for their actions. Gartenhaus finished his fourth term in 1949. Assassination of Prime Minister Abe Hartford Hiltix's 6th Prime Minister, Abe Hartford, was assassinated in Riviara by Gregory Northaw of Frisney Island. Hartford was shot twice in the chest and died instantly. Gregory was tackled by a group of police officers and arrested. After being questioned by interrogators, Gregory described the reason for the killing as, "a rush of cool air and adrenaline pumping in your veins at the same time". Gregory was sentenced to death by electric chair in 1951. The execution proceeded on October 14th, 1953.